as with the sweetnesse of life to make him swallow down the bitternesse of an eternall disgrace He begrutcheth not to get to his side a probability of victory by the certainty of his own death and flieth from nothing so much as from the mention of flying And though some say he is a mad-man that will purchase Honour so dearly with his bloud as that he cannot live to enjoy what he hath bought our Souldier knows that he shall possesse the reward of his valour with God in heaven and also making the world his executor leave to it the rich inheritance of his memory Yet in some cases he counts it no disgrace to yield where it is impossible to conquer as when swarms of enemies crowd about him so that he shall rather be stifled then wounded to death In such a case if quarter be offered him he may take it with more honour then the other can give it and if he throws up his desperate game he may happily winne the next whereas if he playeth it out to the last he shall certainly lose it and himself But if he be to fall into the hand of a barbarous enemy whose giving him quarter is but repriving him for a more ignominious death he had rather disburse his life at the present then to take day to fall into the hands of such remorslesse creditours He makes none the object of his cruelty which cannot be the object of his fear Lyons they say except forc'd with hunger will not prey on women and children though I would wish none to try the truth hereof the truly valiant will not hurt women or infants nor will they be cruell to old men What conquest is it to strike him up who stands but on one leg and hath the other foot in the grave But arrant cowards such as would conquer victory it self if it should stand in their way as they flie count themselves never evenly match'd except they have threefold oddes on their side and esteem their enemie never disarmed till they be dead Such love to shew a nature steep'd in gall of passion and display the ignoble tyrany of prevailing dastards these being thus valiant against no resistance will make no resistance when they meet with true valour He counts it murther to kill any in cold bloud Indeed in taking Cities by assault especially when Souldiers have suffered long in an hard siege it is pardonable what present passion doth with a sudden thrust but a premeditated back-blow in cold bloud is base Some excuse there is for bloud enraged and no wonder if that scaldeth which boyleth but when men shall call a consultation in their soul and issue thence a deliberate act the more advised the deed is the lesse advised it is when men raise their own passions and are not raised by them specially if fair quarter be first granted an alms which he who gives to day may crave to morrow yea he that hath the hilt in his hand in the morning may have the point at his throat ere night He doth not barbarously abuse the bodies of his dead enemies We find that Hercules was the first the most valiant are ever most mercifull that ever suffered his enemies to carry away their dead bodies after they had been put to the sword Belike before his time they cruelly cut the corps in pieces or cast them to the wild beasts In time of plenty he provides for want hereafter Yet generally Souldiers as if they counted one Treasurer in an army were enough so hate covetousnesse that they cannot affect providence for the future and come home with more marks in their bodies then pence in their pockets He is willing and joyfull to imbrace peace on good conditions The procreation of peace and not the satisfying of mens lusts and liberties is the end of warre Yet how many having warre for their possession desire a perpetuity thereof Wiser men then King Henry the eights fool use to cry in fair weather whose harvest being onely in storms they themselves desire to raise them wherefore fearing peace will starve whom warre hath fatted and to render themselves the more usefull they prolong discord to the utmost and could wish when swords are once drawn that all scabbards might be cut asunder He is as quiet and painfull in peace as couragious in warre If he hath not gotten already enough whereon comfortably to subsist he rebetakes himself to his former calling he had before the warre began the weilding of his sword hath not made him unweildie to do any other work and put his bones out of joynt to take pains Hence comes it to passe that some take by-courses on the high-wayes and death whom they honourably sought for in the field meets them in a worse place But we leave our Souldier seeking by his virtues to ascend from a private place by the degrees of Sergeant Lieutenant Captain Colonell till he comes to be a Generall and then in the next book God willing you shall have his example CHAP. 20. The good Sea-Captain HIs Military part is concurrent with that of the Souldier already described He differs onely in some Sea-properties which we will now set down Conceive him now in a Man of warre with his letters of mart well arm'd victuall'd and appointed and see how he acquits himself The more power he hath the more carefull he is not to abuse it Indeed a Sea-captain is a King in the Iland of a ship supreme Judge above appeal in causes civill and criminall and is seldome brought to an account in Courts of Justice on land for injuries done to his own men at sea He is carefull in observing of the Lords day He hath a watch in his heart though no bells in a steeple to proclaim that day by ringing to prayers S r Francis Drake in three years sailing about the world lost one whole day which was scarce considerable in so long time 'T is to be feared some Captains at sea lose a day every week one in seven neglecting the Sabbath He is as pious and thankfull when a tempest is past as devout when 't is present not clamorous to receive mercies and tongue-tied to return thanks Many mariners are calm in a storm and storm in a calm blustring with oathes In a tempest it comes to their turn to be religious whose piety is but a fit of the wind and when that 's allayed their devotion is ended Escaping many dangers makes him not presumptuous to run into them Not like those Sea-men who as if their hearts were made of those rocks they have often sayled by are so alwayes in death they never think of it These in their navigations observe that it is farre hotter under the Tropicks in the coming to the Line then under the Line it self in like manner they conceive that the fear phancy in preparing for death is more terrible then death it self which makes them
her muce How doth the little bee flying into severall meadows and gardens sipping of many cups yet never intoxicated through an ocean as I may say of air steddily steer her self home without help of card or compasse But these cannot play an aftergame and recover what they have forgotten which is done by the mediation of discourse Artificiall memory is rather a trick then an art and more for the gain of the teacher then profit of the learners Like the tossing of a pike which is no part of the postures and motions thereof and is rather for ostentation then use to shew the strength and nimblenesse of the arm and is often used by wandring Souldiers as an introduction to beg Understand it of the artificiall rules which at this day are delivered by Memory-mountebanks for sure an art thereof may be made wherein as yet the world is defective and that no more destructive to naturall Memory then spectacles are to eyes which girls in Holland wear from 12 years of age But till this be found out let us observe these plain rules First soundly infix in thy mind what thou desirest to remember What wonder is it if agitation of businesse jog that out of thy head which was there rather tack'd then fastned whereas those notions which get in by violenta possessio will abide there till ejectio firma sicknesse or extreme age dispossesse them It is best knocking in the nail overnight and clinching it the next morning Overburthen not thy Memory to make so faithfull a servant a slave Remember Atlas was weary Have as much reason as a Camell to rise when thou hast thy full load Memory like a purse if it be over full that it cannot shut all will drop out of it Take heed of a gluttonous curiositie to feed on many things lest the greedinesse of the appetite of thy Memory spoyl the digestion thereof Beza's case was peculiar and memorable being above fourescore years of age he perfectly could say by heart any Greek Chapter in S. Pauls Epistles or any thing else which he had learnt long before but forgot whatsoever was newly told him his Memory like an inne retaining old guests but having no room to entertain new Spoyl not thy Memory with thine own jealousie nor make it bad by suspecting it How canst thou find that true which thou wilt not trust S. Augustine tells us of his friend Simplicius who being ask'd could tell all Virgills verses backward and forward and yet the same party vowed to God that he knew not that he could do it till they did try him Sure there is conceal'd strength in mens Memories which they take no notice of Marshall thy notions into a handsome method One will carrie twice more weight trust and pack'd up in bundles then when it lies untowardly flapping and hanging about his shoulders Things orderly fardled up under heads are most portable Adventure not all thy learning in one bottom but divide it betwixt thy Memory and thy Note-books He that with Bias carries all his learning about him in his head will utterly be beggerd and bankrupt if a violent disease a mercilesse thief should rob and strip him I know some have a Common-place against Common-place-books and yet perchance will privately make use of what publickly they declaim against A Common-place-book contains many Notions in garison whence the owner may draw out an army into the field on competent warning Moderate diet and good aire preserve Memory but what aire is best I dare not define when such great ones differ Some say a pure and subtle aire is best another commends a thick and foggy aire For the Pisans sited in the fennes and marish of Arnus have excellent memories as if the foggy aire were a cap for their heads Thankfulnesse to God for it continues the Memory whereas some proud people have been visited with such oblivion that they have forgotten their own names Staupitius Tutour to Luther and a godly man in a vain ostentation of his memory repeated Christs Genealogie Matth. 1. by heart in his Sermon but being out about the Captivity of Babylon I see saith he God resisteth the proud and so betook himself to his book Abuse not thy Memory to be Sinnes Register nor make advantage thereof for wickednesse Excellently Augustine Quidam vero pessimi memoria sunt mirabili qui tanto pejores sunt quanto minus possunt quae male cogitant oblivisci CHAP. 11. Of Phancie IT is an inward Sense of the soul for a while retaining and examining things brought in thither by the Common sense It is the most boundles and restlesse faculty of the soul for whilest the Understanding and the Will are kept as it were in Libera Custodia to their objects of Verum Bonum the Phancie is free from all engagements it digs without spade sails without ship flies without wings builds without charges fights without bloudshed in a moment striding from the centre to the circumference of the world by a kind of omnipotencie creating and annihilating things in an instant and things divorced in Nature are married in Phancie as in a lawlesse place It is also most restlesse whilest the Senses are bound and Reason in a manner asleep Phancie like a sentinell walks the round ever working never wearied The chief diseases of the Phancie are either that they are too wild and high-soaring or else too low and groveling or else too desultory and overvoluble Of the first If thy Phancie be but a little too rank age it self will correct it To lift too high is no fault in a young horse because with travelling he will mend it for his own ease Thus lofty Phancies in young men will come down of themselves and in processe of time the overplus will shrink to be but even measure But if this will not do it then observe these rules Take part alwayes with thy Iudgement against thy Phancie in any thing wherein they shall dissent If thou suspectest thy conceits too luxuriant herein account thy suspicion a legall conviction and damne whatsoever thou doubtest of Warily Tullie Bene monent qui vetant quicquam facere de quo dubitas aequum sit an iniquum Take the advise of a faithfull friend and submit thy inventions to his censure When thou pennest an oration let him have the power of Index expurgatorius to expunge what he pleaseth and do not thou like a fond mother crie if the child of thy brain be corrected for playing the wanton Mark the arguments and reasons of his alterations why that phrase least proper this passage more cautious and advised and after a while thou shalt perform the place in thine own person and not go out of thy self for a censurer If thy Phancie be too low and humble Let thy judgement be King but not Tyrant over it to condemne harmlesse yea commendable conceits Some for fear their orations should giggle will
tablets with their names in those Haven-towns where they came ashore But as for those who are drowned their memorialls are drowned with them Generall reports are seldome false Vox populi vox Dei A body of that greatnesse hath an eye of like clearnesse and it is impossible that a wanderer with a counterfeit passe should passe undiscovered A fond Fame is best confuted by neglecting it By Fond understand such a report as is rather ridiculous then dangerous if believed It is not worth the making a Schisme betwixt News-mongers to set up an antifame against it Yea seriously and studiously to endeavour to confute it will grace the rumour too much and give suspicion that indeed there is some reality in it What madnesse were it to plant a piece of ordinance to beat down an aspen leaf which having alwayes the palsie will at last fall down of it self And Fame hath much of the scold in her the best way to silence her is to be silent and then at last she will be out of breath with blowing her own trumpet Fame sometimes reports things lesse then they are Pardon her for offending herein she is guilty so seldome For one kingdome of Scotland which they say Geographers describe an hundred miles too short most Northern countreys are made too large Fame generally overdoes underdoes but in some particulars The Italian proverb hath it There is lesse honesty wisdome and money in men then is counted on yet sometimes a close churl who locks his coffers so fast Fame could never peep into them dyeth richer then he was reported when alive None could come near to feel his estate it might therefore cut fatter in his purse then was expected But Fame falls most short in those Transcendents which are above her Predicaments as in Solomons wisdome And behold one half was not told me thy wisdome and prosperity exceedeth the Fame that I heard But chiefly in fore-reporting the Happinesse in heaven which eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive CHAP. 24. Of the Antiquity of Churches and Necessity of them WE will consider their Antiquity amongst the Jews Heathen and Christians Now Temples amongst the Jews were more or lesse ancient as the acception of the word is straiter or larger Take Temple for a covered standing structure and the Iews had none till the time of Solomon which was from the beginning of the world about two thousand nine hundred thirty two years till then they had neither leave nor libertie to build a Temple For the Patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Jacob lived in Pilgrimage their posterity in Egypt in persecution their children in the Wildernesse in constant travelling their Successours in Canaan in continuall warrefare till the dayes of Solomon Take Templum for tectum amplum a large place covered to serve God therein and the Tabernacle was a moveable Temple built by Moses in the wildernesse about the yeare of the world two thousand foure hundred fiftie five Yea we find Gods Spirit styling this Tabernacle a Temple 1. Sam. 1.9 Ely the Priest sate upon a seat by a pillar of the Temple 1. Sam. 3.3 Before the lamp of the Lord went out in the Temple Such a portable Church Constantine had carried about with him when he went to warre Gods children had places with Altars to serve God in before they had any Temples Such Altars seem as ancient as Sacrifices both which are twins and in Relatives find one and find both Indeed the first Altar we reade of in Scripture is that which Noah built after the Flood But heare what a Learned man saith thereof Non tamen existimandum toto illo tempore quo ante diluvium pii homines Deo sacrificarunt Altarium usum fuisse incognitum Potius id credendum Noachum sequutum fuisse exemplum eorum qui eum praecesserant imo morem inolitum The Iews besides the Temple had many other Synagogues serving instead of Chappell 's of ease to the mother Church at Jerusalem In the new Testament the Temple yet standing 't is plain that Christ often graced such Synagogues with his presence and preaching and 't is probable they were in use ever since Josuahs time when the land was first inhabited with Israelites and that the Levites dispersed all over the land did teach the people therein Otherwise Palestine was a great Parish and some therein had an hundred miles to Church besides peoples souls were poorely fed having but three meals in a yeare being but thrice to appear at Jerusalem Many Heathen Temples were ancienter then that of Solomons Amongst which Pagan Temples there is much justling for precedency though some think that of Apis in Egypt shews the best evidence for her seniority wherein was worshipped an Oxe of whose herd not to say breed was the Calf which the Israelites worshipped in the wildernesse being made in imitation thereof But the Heathen had this grosse conceit that their Gods were affixt to their Statues as their Statues were confin'd in their Temples So that in effect they did not so much build Temples for their Gods as thereby lay Nets to catch them in inviting them thither as into a Pallace and then keeping them there as in a Prison Most civilized Heathen Nations had Temples for their Gods I say Most for the Persians are said to have none at all Perchance it was because they chiefly worshipped the Sunne and then according to the generall opinion of fixing Deities to their Temples it was in vain to erect any structure therein to restrain and keep his Ubiquitary beams And yet that the Persians were wholly Temple-lesse will hardly be believed seeing the Assyrians on this side Senacherib was killed worshipping in the house of Nisroch his God and the Indians on the other side of them had their Temples erected as some will have it by Bacchus their Dionysius yea we find a Temple in Persia dedicated to Nanea in the time of Antiochus and though it may be pretended that the influence of the Grecian Empire on the Persians had then spiced them with a smack of Grecisme yet Nanea will scarce be proved any Grecian Deity not to say any thing of the Temple of Bell. Civilized for as for the Scythian wandring Nomades Temples sorted not with their condition as wanting both civility and settlednesse and who can expect Churches from them who had no houses for themselves Lastly I say Nation for the Stoicks onely a conceited sect forbad any building of Temples either out of derision of the common conceit that Deities were kept in durance in their Temples or else out of humour because they counted the generall practice of other men a just ground for their contrary opinion And now we come to the Antiquity of Christian Churches and crave leave of the Reader that we may for a while dissolve our continued discourse into a dialogue A. I
with other symptomes gave the suspicion that he poysoned himself It will suffice us to observe If a Great man much beloved dyeth suddenly the report goes that others poysoned him If he be generally hated then that he poysoned himself Sure never did a Great man fall with lesse pity Some of his own servants with the feathers they got under him flew to other Masters Most of the Clergy more pitying his Profession then Person were glad that the felling of this oke would cause the growth of much underwood Let Geometricians measure the vastnesse of his mind by the footsteps of his Buildings Christ-Church White-Hall Hampton-Court And no wonder if some of these were not finished seeing his life was rather broken off then ended Sure King Henrie lived in two of his houses and lies now in the third I mean his Tombe at Windsor In a word in his prime he was the bias of the Christian world drawing the bowl thereof to what side he pleased CHAP. 4. The life of CHARLES BRANDON Duke of Suffolk CHarles Brandon was sonne to Sr. William Brandon Standerd-bearer to King Henry the seaventh in whose quarrell he was slain in Bosworth field wherefore the King counted himself bound in honour and conscience to favour young Charles whose father spent his last breath to blow him to the haven of victory and caused him to be brought up with Prince Henrie his second sonne The intimacy betwixt them took deep impression in their tender years which hardned with continuance of time proved indeleble It was advanced by the sympathy of their active spirits men of quick and large-striding minds loving to walk together not to say that the loosenesse of their youthfull lives made them the faster friends Henry when afterwards King heaped honours upon him created him Viscount Lisle and Duke of Suffolk Not long after some of the English Nobility got leave to go to the publick Tilting in Paris and there behav'd themselves right valiantly though the sullen French would scarce speak a word in their praise For they conceived it would be an eternall impoverishing of the credit of their Nation if the honour of the day should be exported by foreiners But Brandon bare away the credit from all fighting at Barriers with a giant Almain till he made an earth-quake in that mountain of flesh making him reel and stagger and many other courses at Tilt he performed to admiration Yea the Lords beheld him not with more envious then the Ladies with gracious eyes who darted more glaunces in love then the other ranne spears in anger against him especially Mary the French Queen and sister to King Henry the eighth who afterward proved his wife For after the death of Lewis the twelfth her husband King Henry her brother imployed Charles Brandon to bring her over into England who improved his service so well that he got her good will to marrie her Whether his affections were so ambitious to climbe up to her or hers so courteous as to descend to him who had been twice a widower before let youthfull pennes dispute it it sufficeth us both met together Then wrote he in humble manner to request King Henries leave to marrie his sister but knowing that matters of this nature are never sure till finisht and that leave is sooner got to do such attempts when done already and wisely considering with himself that there are but few dayes in the Almanack wherein such Marriages come in and subjects have opportunity to wed Queens he first married her privately in Paris King Henrie after the acting of some anger and shewing some state-discontent was quickly contented therewith yea the world conceiveth that he gave this woman to be married to this man in sending him on such an imployment At Calis they were afterward re-married or if you will their former private marriage publickly solemniz'd and coming into England liv'd many years in honour and esteem no lesse dear to his fellow-subjects then his Sovereigne He was often imployed Generall in Martiall affairs especially in the warres betwixt the English and French though the greatest performance on both sides was but mutuall indenting the Dominions each of other with inrodes When the divorce of King Henry from Queen Katharine was so long in agitation Brandon found not himself a little agrieved at the Kings expence of time and money for the Court of Rome in such matters wherein money is gotten by delayes will make no more speed then the beast in Brasil which the Spaniards call Pigritia which goes no farther in a fortnight then a man will cast a stone Yea Brandon well perceived that Cardinall Campeius and Wolsey in their Court at Bridewell wherein the divorce was judicially handled intended onely to produce a solemn Nothing their Court being but the clock set according to the diall at Rome and the instructions received thence Wherefore knocking on the table in the presence of the two Cardinalls he bound it with an oath That It was never well in England since Cardinalls had any thing to do therein And from that time forward as an active instrument he indeavoured the abolishing of the Popes power in England For he was not onely as the Papists complain of him a principall agent in that Parliament Anno. 1534. wherein the Popes supremacy was abrogated but also a main means of the overturning of Abbeys as conceiving that though the head was struck off yet as long as that neck and those shoulders remained there would be a continuall appetite of reuniting themselves Herein his thoughts were more pure from the mixture of covetousnesse then many other imployed in the same service For after that our eyes justly dazled at first with the brightnesse of Gods Justice on those vitious fraternities have somewhat recovered themselves they will serve us to see the greedy appetites of some instruments to feed on Church-morsels He lived and dyed in the full favour of his Prince though as Cardinall Pool observed they who were highest in this Kings favour their heads were nearest danger Indeed King Henrie was not very tender in cutting off that joynt and in his Reigne the ax was seldome wiped before wetted again with Noble bloud He dyed Anno 1544. much beloved and lamented of all for his bounty humility valour and all noble virtues since the heat of his youth was tamed in his reduced age and lies buried at Windsor CHAP. 5. The wise Statesman TO describe the Statesman at large is the subject rather of a Volume then a Chapter and is as farre beyond my power as wide of my profession We will not lanch into the deep but satisfie our selves to sail by the shore and briefly observe his carriage towards God his King himself home-persons and forein Princes He counts the fear of God the beginning of wisdome and therefore esteemeth no project profitable which is not lawfull nothing politick which crosseth piety Let not any plead for the contrary Hushai's dealing with Absalom which strongly
a masculine word to so heroick a spirit She was very devout in returning thanks to God for her constant and continuall preservations for one traitours stabbe was scarce put by before another took aim at her But as if the poysons of treason by custome were turn'd naturall unto her by Gods protection they did her no harm In any designe of consequence she loved to be long and well advised but where her resolutions once seis'd she would never let go her hold according to her motto Semper eadem By her Temperance she improved that stock of health which Nature bestowed on her using little wine and lesse Physick Her Continence from pleasures was admirable and she the Paragon of spotlesse chastity what ever some Popish Priests who count all virginity hid under a Nunnes veil have feigned to the contrary The best is their words are no slander whose words are all slander so given to railing that they must be dumbe if they do not blaspheme Magistrates One Jesuit made this false Anagram on her name Elizabeth Iezabel false both in matter and manner For allow it the abatement of H as all Anagrams must sue in Chancery for moderate favour yet was it both unequall and ominous that T a solid letter should be omitted the presage of the gallows whereon this Anagrammatist was afterwards justly executed Yea let the testimony of Pope Sixtus Quintus himself be believed who professed that amongst all the Princes in Christendome he found but two which were worthy to bear command had they not been stained with heresie namely Henry the fourth King of France and Elizabeth Queen of England And we may presume that the Pope if commending his enemy is therein infallible We come to her death the discourse whereof was more welcome to her from the mouth of her private Confessour then from a publick Preacher and she loved rather to tell her self then to be told of her mortality because the open mention thereof made as she conceived her subjects divide their loyalty betwixt the present and the future Prince We need look into no other cause of her sicknesse then old age being seventy years old Davids age to which no King of England since the Conquest did attain Her weaknesse was encreased by her removall from London to Richmond in a cold winter day sharp enough to pierce thorow those who were arm'd with health and youth Also melancholy the worst naturall Parasite whosoever seeds him shall never be rid of his company much afflicted her being given over to sadnesse and silence Then prepared she her self for another world being more constant in prayer and pious exercises then ever before yet spake she very little to any sighing out more then she said and making still musick to God in her heart And as the red rose though outwardly not so fragrant is inwardly farre more cordiall then the damask being more thrifty of its sweetnesse and reserving it in it self so the religion of this dying Queen was most turn'd inward in soliloquies betwixt God and her own soul though she wanted not outward expressions thereof When her speech fail'd her she spake with her heart tears eyes hands and other signes so commending herself to God the best interpreter who understands what his Saints desire to say Thus dyed Queen Elizabeth whilest living the first maid on earth and when dead the second in heaven Surely the kingdome had dyed with their Queen had not the fainting spirits thereof been refresh'd by the coming in of gratious King James She was of person tall of hair and complexion fair well-favoured but high-nosed of limbes and feature neat of a stately and majestick deportment She had a piercing eye wherewith she used to touch what metall strangers were made of which came into her presence But as she counted it a pleasant conquest with her Majestick look to dash strangers out of countenance so she was mercifull in pursuing those whom she overcame and afterwards would cherish and comfort them with her smiles if perceiving towardlinesse and an ingenuous modesty in them She much affected rich and costly apparell and if ever jewells had just cause to be proud it was with her wearing them CHAP. 16. The Embassadour HE is one that represents his King in a forrein countrey as a Deputy doth in his own Dominions under the assurance of the publick faith authorized by the Law of Nations He is either Extraordinary for some one affair with time limited or Ordinary for generall matters during his Princes pleasure commonly called a Legier He is born made or at leastwise qualified honourably both for the honour of the sender and him to whom he is sent especially if the solemnity of the action wherein he is employed consisteth in ceremony and magnificence Lewis the eleventh King of France is sufficiently condemn'd by Posterity for sending Oliver his Barber in an Embassage to a Princesse who so trimly dispatch'd his businesse that he left it in the suddes and had been well wash'd in the river at Gant for his pains if his feet had not been the more nimble He is of a proper at least passable person Otherwise if he be of a contemptible presence he is absent whilest he is present especially if employed in love-businesses to advance a marriage Ladyes will dislike the body for a deformed shadow The jest is well known When the State of Rome sent two Embassadours the one having scarres on his head the other lame in his feet Mittit populus Romanus legationem quae nec caput habet nec pedes The people of Rome send an Embassy without head or feet He hath a competent estate whereby to maintain his port for a great poverty is ever suspected and he that hath a breach in his estate lies open to be assaulted with bribes Wherefore his means ought at least to be sufficient both to defray set and constant charges as also to make sallies and excursions of expenses on extraordinary occasions which we may call Supererogations of State Otherwise if he be indigent and succeed a bountifull Predecessour he will seem a fallow field after a plentifull crop He is a passable scholar well travell'd in Countreys and Histories well studyed in the Pleas of the Crown I mean not such as are at home betwixt his Sovereigne and his subjects but abroad betwixt his and forrein Princes to this end he is well skill'd in the Emperiall Laws Common Law it self is outlawed beyond the seas which though a most true is too short a measure of right and reacheth not forrein kingdomes He well understandeth the language of that countrey to which he is sent and yet he desires rather to seem ignorant of it if such a simulation which stands neuter betwixt a Truth and a Lie be lawfull and that for these reasons first because though he can speak it never so exactly his eloquence therein will be but stammering compar'd to the ordinary talk of the
Iudgement-day Then shalt thou know and not before Whether Saint Witch Man Maid or Whore Some conceive that the English conquests being come to the verticall point would have decayed of themselves had this woman never been set up which now reaps the honour hereof as her action Though thus a very child may seem to turn the waves of the sea with his breath if casually blowing on them at that very instant when the tide is to turn of it self Sure after her death the French went on victoriously and wonne all from the English partly by their valour but more by our dissensions for then began the cruell warres betwixt the Houses of York and Lancaster till the Red rose might become White by losing so much bloud and the White rose Red by shedding it CHAP. 6. The Atheist THe word Atheist is of a very large extent every Polytheist is in effect an Atheist for he that multiplies a Deitie annihilates it and he that divides it destroyes it But amongst the heathen we may observe that whosoever sought to withdraw people from their idolatry was presently indited and arraign'd of Atheisme If any Philosopher saw God through their Gods this dust was cast in his eyes for being more quick-sighted then others that presently he was condemn'd for an Atheist and thus Socrates the Pagan Martyr was put to death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 At this day three sorts of Atheists are extant in the world 1 In life and conversation Psal. 10.4 God is not in all his thoughts not that he thinks there is no God but thinks not there is a God never minding or heeding him in the whole course of his life and actions 2 In will and desire Such could wish there were no God or devil as thieves would have no judge nor jaylour Quod metuunt periisse expectunt 3 In judgement and opinion Of the former two sorts of Atheists there are more in the world then are generally thought of this latter more are thought to be then there are a contemplative Atheist being very rare such as were Diagoras Protagoras Lucian and Theodorus who though carrying God in his name was an Atheist in his opinion Come we to see by what degrees a man may climbe up to this height of Profanenesse And we will suppose him to be one living in wealth and prosperity which more disposeth men to Atheisme then adversity For affliction mindeth men of a Deity as those which are pinched will cry O Lord but much outward happinesse abused occasioneth men as wise Agur observeth to deny God and say who is the Lord. First he quarrels at the diversities of religions in the world complaining how great Clerks dissent in their judgements which makes him scepticall in all opinions Whereas such differences should not make men carelesse to have any but carefull to have the best religion He loveth to maintain Paradoxes and to shut his eyes against the beams of a known truth not onely for discourse which might be permitted for as no cloth can be woven except the woof and the warp be cast crosse one to another so discourse will not be maintained without some opposition for the time But our enclining-atheist goes further engaging his affections in disputes even in such matters where the supposing them wounds piety but the positive maintaining them stabs it to the heart He scoffs and makes sport at sacred things This by degrees abates the reverence of religion and ulcers mens hearts with profanenesse The Popish Proverb well understood hath a truth in it Never dog bark'd against the Crucifix but he ran mad Hence he proceeds to take exception at Gods Word He keeps a register of many difficult places of Scripture not that he desires satisfaction therein but delights to puzzle Divines therewith and counts it a great conquest when he hath posed them Unnecessary questions out of the Bible are his most necessary study he is more curious to know where Lazarus his soul was the foure dayes he lay in the grave then carefull to provide for his own soul when he shall be dead Thus is it just with God that they who will not feed on the plain meat of his Word should be choked with the bones thereof But his principall delight is to sound the alarum and to set severall places of Scripture to fight one against another betwixt which there is a seeming and he would make a reall contradiction Afterwards he grows so impudent as to deny the Scripture it self As Sampson being fastned by a web to a pin carried away both web and pin so if any urge our Atheist with arguments from Scripture and tie him to the Authority of Gods Word he denies both reason and Gods Word to which the reason is fastened Hence he proceeds to deny God himself First in his Administration then in his Essence What else could be expected but that he should bite at last who had snarl'd so long First he denies Gods ordering of sublunarie matters Tush doth the Lord see or is there knowledge in the most Highest making him a maimed Deity without an eye of Providence or an arm of Power and at most restraining him onely to matters above the clouds But he that dares to confine the King of heaven will soon after endeavour to depose him and fall at last flatly to deny him He furnisheth himself with an armoury of arguments to fight against his own conscience Some taken from 1. The impunity and outward happinesse of wicked men as the heathen Poet whose verses for me shall passe unenglished Esse Deos credamne fidem jurata fefellit Et facies illi quae fuit ante manet And no wonder if an Atheist breaks his neck thereat whereat the foot of David himself did almost slip when he saw the prosperity of the wicked whom God onely reprives for punishment hereafter 2. From the afflictions of the godly whilest indeed God onely tries their faith and patience As Absalom complain'd of his Father Davids government that none were deputed to redresse peoples grievances so he objects that none righteth the wrongs of Gods people and thinks proud dust the world would be better steered if he were the Pilot thereof 3. From the delaying of the day of Judgement with those mockers 2. Peter 3. Whose objections the Apostle fully answereth And in regard of his own particular the Atheist hath as little cause to rejoyce at the deferring of the day of Judgement as the Thief hath reason to be glad that the Assizes be put off who is to be tryed and may be executed before at the Quarter-sessions So death may take our Atheist off before the day of Judgement come With these and other arguments he struggles with his own conscience and long in vain seeks to conquer it even fearing that Deity he flouts at and dreading that God whom he denies And as that famous Athenian souldier Cynegirus catching hold of one of the